On April 19, 2018, the information unit of the Syrian army announced the launching of the campaign to liberate the areas controlled by ISIS in southern Damascus. After around two weeks of preparations, the operation began with artillery fire and airstrikes against ISIS’s headquarters, outposts, weapons and supply routes in the Yarmouk refugee camp and in Al-Hajar al-Aswad neighborhood west of the camp. Read more...

With the takeover of the city of Duma and the evacuation of the last fighters from its territory, the Syrian army effectively completed the takeover of eastern Al-Ghouta. Now the Syrian army and the forces supporting it are shifting the center of operations to the Al-Yarmouk refugee camp in southern Damascus. In Iraq, the security forces continued to operate against a number of areas where pockets of ISIS operatives remained. The Egyptian security forces, which have been working for around two months to eradicate the presence of ISIS in the Sinai Peninsula, suffered losses in an attempt by ISIS operatives to infiltrate one of the army bases in Sinai. Read more...

The Syrian army continued to attack the rebel organizations in the city of Duma, their last significant stronghold in eastern Al-Ghouta. Meanwhile, the Syrian army is about to complete its takeover of eastern Al-Ghouta. Recently, there have been more and more reports of the US intention to withdraw its troops from Syria Read more...

The Syrian forces took control of most of eastern Al-Ghouta and are completing its takeover from the rebel organizations. In the north, the Turkish army and the Syrian forces supporting it are completing the takeover of the Afrin enclave. In addition to the fighting being waged by ISIS in Syria and Iraq, its supporters abroad continue to carry out ISIS-inspired attacks in Western countries, proving that the jihadi ideology and the ISIS brand are still highly attractive. Read more...

The attack in the South of France demonstrated that even after the collapse of the Islamic State and the transformation of ISIS into a terrorist and guerrilla organization fighting for its existence in Syria and Iraq, the ISIS brand is still highly attractive, as is its Salafi-jihadi ideology and the vision of the Islamic Caliphate. Read more...

In eastern Al-Ghouta, the Syrian army continued to attack the three enclaves of the rebel groups, whose territory is shrinking. According to Syrian sources, around 75% of the area of eastern Al-Ghouta has been taken over by the Syrian Army. On March 18, 2018, Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan announced that the Turkish army and the Syrian forces cooperating with it had completed the takeover of the city of Afrin, in northwestern Syria. Kurdish fighters from the SDF forces have moved from the lower Euphrates Valley to the enclave of Afrin in order to take part in the fighting against the Turkish army. Read more...